National Mineral Development Corporation's (NMDC) reported 21 percent rise in profit at Rs 1,179 crore in its Q1 earnings. The state-controlled mineral producer's numbers were in-line with estimates. The profit after tax (PAT) though came in lower due to a higher tax rate.

Amitava Mukherjee, director of finance at NMDC said: “I think we have posted a very good Q1 result, unprecedented if I may say so.

“Despite Donimalai not being there, our sales and production has increased by more than 20 and 28 percent. That has been very encouraging and accordingly our turnover and profit has also increased in much better quantities as compared to last year Q1,” he added.

Annual guidance without Donimalai is around 32 million tonne, Mukherjee said. “Donimalai's capacity is around 6-7 million tonne. However, that roughly translates to 0.5 million tonne per month. So, as and when we can restart production, we will have to add that to our guidance,” he added.

Speaking about approvals to operate the Donimalai plant, he said: “It is difficult to put a timeline to it because there is a process of approvals and it is a process which takes its own time. We hope it will be sooner than later.”

On the capex guidance, Mukherjee said: “The cash in our books as of date is around Rs 4,500 crore. The capex guidance for this year is around Rs 3,000 crore of which the major part is Nagarnar plant of Rs 2,200 crore.”